Looking for state Sen. 鈥檚 personal website? It's not jeffwentworth.com, an attack site that blasts the 20-year San Antonio incumbent as 鈥渢he most liberal Republican senator in Austin.鈥�
Want to know what , a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, says on Twitter? Don't follow , which calls the former state solicitor general a 鈥渢rial lawyer standing with a Chinese conglomerate to kill American jobs.鈥�
Straddling the line between dirty tricks and political strategy is as old as elections. And campaign impersonation dates at least as far back as the 1970s, when , President Richard Nixon鈥檚 re-election operative, forged letters seeking to discredit Democratic presidential candidate 鈥� a move that landed Segretti in prison.
But social media sabotage is in high gear in Texas鈥� later-than-usual primary, from fake Twitter feeds to deceptive website domains to allegations of email and Facebook forgery.
There are , , and , all attack sites designed to look like the personal sites of state Reps. of Southlake, of Austin, of The Woodlands and of Jacksonville, all incumbent Republicans. The sites are financed by Truitt and Workman's primary opponents, a home schooling advocacy group and a conservative political action committee, respectively.
There is , a parody Twitter account that paints Cruz as a junk-food-bingeing, beer-guzzling loafer, and @RealTedCruz, which lobs negative attacks from the campaign arsenal of Lt. Gov. , a Republican who is also running to replace U.S. Sen. .
And last month, a state House race in Tarrant County erupted with accusations of , apparently intended to malign a member of the campaign staff of, a Democratic contender and former state representative from Arlington.
The tactics have infuriated some longtime lawmakers who have become targets, like Wentworth, who said the fact that the conservative group and its partner project Texans for Fiscal Responsibility are operating amounts to 鈥渋dentity theft.鈥�
Michael Quinn Sullivan, the organizations鈥� president and chief executive, said in a statement that if 鈥減oliticians don鈥檛 like their voting records and statements being made known to the public, they should seek to improve their voting records, not hide from the facts.鈥�
But Wentworth said the site is a complete deception, starting with its use of a domain that most would believe belongs to his campaign. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very misleading,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here ought to be some law against using my name, your name, on a website that isn鈥檛 yours.鈥�
The reality is, there isn't, said Eric Menhart, a Washington-based Internet and domain-name lawyer. While commercial enterprises are often entitled to reclaim their domains 鈥� say, if Coca-Cola purchased Pepsi.com 鈥� 鈥渇olks who are in the political vein are generally not going to be afforded those protections,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a free-speech issue.鈥�
Part of this season鈥檚 heightened social media warfare can be explained by election timing and the redistricting battle that pushed this year鈥檚 primary into late May, and the runoff into July, said Jeff Rotkoff, a Democratic political consultant. 鈥淚f I were running a down-ballot race in a low-turnout primary in a weird time of year, I would want to use every tool to reach hyper-partisans, to get inside their tight social networks,鈥� he said.
But don't expect the battles to fizzle out in future election cycles. Social media strategists and the special-interest groups increasingly involved in primary politics see no problem with the phony Twitter feeds, and generally think that candidates who don't own their own web domains are asking for opponents to snatch them.
鈥淚f these guys are concerned about it, they should go out and buy up all the potential domain names to prevent it from happening,鈥� said Tim Lambert, whose is financing robeissler.org, an attack site aimed at unseating the chairman of the House Public Education Committee. 鈥淭his is the 21st century. It鈥檚 where campaigning is going.鈥�
While almost all campaign operatives engage in these strategies, they admit there is little evidence that they sway voters. Polling by , a Republican political consulting firm, has found that 18 to 20 percent of statewide Republican primary voters actively use Facebook; for Twitter, the number is far lower.
鈥淚 see enough Google analytics on the actual candidate websites to know they鈥檙e not getting that many hits, and it鈥檚 going to be even less for the fake sites,鈥� said , an Austin-based Republican consultant.
Campaign operatives lump social media impersonation into three categories 鈥� what's fine, what straddles the line and what is indefensible.
The phony Twitter accounts are obviously parodies, they say, and are widely regarded as such. The individual behind @FakeTedCruz, who requested anonymity in order to continue to operate the Twitter feed discreetly, said the account is 鈥渁ll psychology, just a way to get someone off of their game.鈥� But the individual acknowledged that it is more entertainment for the political audience than a tool to sway average voters.
Impersonating candidates on Facebook or on email to damage their reputations falls on the opposite side of the ethical spectrum, candidates and strategists agree: It's wrong and possibly illegal.
There is less consensus on attack websites that appear to be a candidate鈥檚 own. Tyler Hargrave, the social media director for the Eppstein Group, which represents candidates including Hopson, Truitt and Wentworth, said special-interest groups and political action committees are 鈥渁ssuming someone鈥檚 identity, taking a candidate鈥檚 name and hijacking that URL, which is directly intending to mislead someone.鈥�
But , a web strategist who managed digital media for Gov. Rick Perry from early 2009 through his winning 2010 bid for governor, said buying up an opponent鈥檚 URL is fair game. Franklin has been on the other side: He recalled the Perry campaign鈥檚 unsuccessful struggle a few years ago to acquire rickperry.com from an undisclosed owner. (The campaign does operate rickperry.org.)
鈥淪ome of these candidates are almost inviting squatters to sit on their real estate,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think you can claim to be the victim when you鈥檝e neglected to tend to your own brand.鈥�
The branding wars have gone beyond political campaigns, and in some cases, beyond social media.
According to AgendaWise, a conservative web-based organization, Twitter froze the group鈥檚 accounts 鈥� and those of Empower Texans 鈥� for a few days in July, a move AgendaWise Executive Director and former Empower Texans staffer Daniel Greer鈥檚 acquisition of Twitter handles related to StateImpact, a National Public Radio endeavor funded in part by liberal philanthropist George Soros鈥� . AgendaWise operates, an attack site that calls StateImpact 鈥渁n effort to shift public opinion to the left.鈥� (Greer, who says on his that he is 鈥渁ddicted to buying domains,鈥� has registered the domain for; in 2011, The Texas Tribune received a contribution from the Open Society Institute, since renamed the Open Society Foundations.)
AgendaWise didn鈥檛 respond with pleasure when the tables were turned. After Mark McCaig, an attorney, Republican activist and opponent of the tort reform group , filed as 鈥淎gendaWise鈥� with the Texas secretary of state, he received a warning from the organization鈥檚 lawyer. 鈥淚t isn鈥檛 until he uses our name that we get to sue him, something we have privately put him on notice about,鈥� Weston Hicks, AgendaWise鈥檚 lead analyst, on May 1.
McCaig said he did it for 鈥渢he same reason they do it 鈥� for entertainment.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 just like what you see with the political campaigns on the Internet,鈥� he added. 鈥淚 was just playing their game.鈥�
Hicks said when it comes to political activities, there are distinct differences between the three types of attacks 鈥� false, parody and accountability 鈥� and that only false ones should be off-limits. Parody and accountability 鈥渄on鈥檛 involve pretending to be someone else or gaining trust for ulterior motives,鈥� he said.
Hicks said AgendaWise routinely exposes false attacks, and doesn't engage in them. 鈥淭hough we don鈥檛 participate in them, false political activities are like any lie,鈥� he said, "they can be useful if they don鈥檛 get you in trouble.鈥�
